The Serama Breeder

Vox Pop: "Serama Breeder & Operations
Director", Off The Edge, December 2008

A regular feature of Off The Edge is something called the "Vox Pop" - profiles of people who generally don't make it to the news, but whom we see often. It could be anybody.

The interviews are quite enlightening. The lives of people that are usually referred to as "normal folks" can have extraordinary chapters. Their backgrounds, lifestyles, experiences and work... I've learned a lot more from these than I could ever glean from online research.

One such interview was a great example. The serama breeder and operations director of Serama Corp is an expert in his field who has won competitions and met the King of Thailand. Many folks I know haven't had that opportunity.

Look how proud he is of his birds. He has several reasons to be.

I still remember the shrill crowing of the tiny roosters, and I still get gaping jaws and saucer-sized eyes when I recount the tale of the RM2,000 pint-sized chicken - edible, and reputedly possesses medicinal properties. An adult serama is about half the size of an average chicken, and its survival rate is lower. The animal does take some dedication to raise - how many would want that kind of life?

This was also one of the few pieces that used my photos, taken with my Canon Powershot A580. The crowing serama rooster is one of my best to date.

Spare Some Change, Please

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm looking forward to the US Elections' results.

None of us in Malaysia expected the Opposition besides PAS to take a state. Now they have... three? Four? So I am interested in whether America has realised it's not about skin or faith anymore in an increasingly shrinking, flattening Earth.

Political party, race and religion are no longer the talismans they used to be against the tides of change. Even so, only idiots expect change to take effect in at least 48 hours. Or 48 months. The world has changed lots, and will continue to change - with or without us. We're all in it for the long haul and it's up to us whether to sink or swim.

Khadijah's Kitchen

I'd heard about this singer from the 80s, but if you told me that I'll be interviewing her some day, I'd have said you're freaking nuts.

"Khadijah's kitchen", Off The Edge, November 2009

Mmm. Aren't my words yummy.

It was raining heavily the first time I was there. She was telling us about her Pearl Anniversary Concerts at the Malaysian Philharmonic at KLCC. With her at the press conference were Ramli Sarip and Dato' Ahmad Nawab.

I was more blown away by how down-to-earth she was, rather than her status or her cooking, which is rather good. I've had several other serendipitous encounters at the place - a tale for another time.

And the concert was great; I wrote a review-of-sorts that was never published - another tale for another time.

Surviving Malaysia

My first book review in ages. I felt this one was tame by my old standards. The book apparently caused a flap-of-sorts, with regards to its content and tone. And some of my words were said to have been twisted in some Bangkok Post article to pan the book, publisher and author. It was a rhetorical question...!

I didn't manage to save the print version, either. On the bright side, I made a new friend.

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Different and unique

first published in The Star, 26 October 2008


Do we really need another book on Malaysiana that comes with the all-too-familiar hastily-scrawled cartoons?

With so many books on this subject already available in bookstores, I didn’t think the Malaysians-On-Malaysia collection could get any bigger. But I forget that this is the land of "We Can Make It Even Bigger!" so it’s no surprise that there is another addition to speak of.

Dos & Don’ts in Malaysia is written by a Malaysian jack-of-all-trades and it talks about our history, the three major ethnic groups, festivals and the like with an emphasis on the dos and don’ts (thoughtfully rendered in bold) that should be observed while one is in the country.

The axiom "don’t judge a book by its cover" applies to Dos & Don’ts - even if the cover does need work. First-time visitors and long-time residents could benefit from the gems in this book, buried among the comics.

Like this country of ours, the book (and I presume, the author) is quirky in the best of ways. Example: the chapter on the early history of Malacca during the spice trade ends with the admonition, "Don’t colonise Malaysia because you want your food to taste better" - something we neglected to tell the Portuguese back then.

This, along with the many documented faux pas by visiting foreigners was why the author felt it was time for such a manual.

Interesting tidbits in this book lead me to believe that most of us don’t really know our own country - or our customs for that matter. The sections on speech and greeting conventions, weddings, marriages and funerals were particularly enlightening and I didn’t know that nasi lemak differs from state to state, nor was I aware of something called sup terbang (flying soup, but in this case it’s the drinker that flies!) in Penang. What have I been missing?

What could be disconcerting is how the author has stereotyped certain groups, like the self-centered urban Chinese, "territorial" Indian males and our notorious cabbies.

Not very attractive topics of conversation, but a survival guide on Malaysia wouldn’t be complete without these, would it?

If you overlook the uncomfortable bits, Dos & Don’ts can be an asset to local and foreigners alike. Definitely something I would refer to before attending wedding dinners and open houses, and buying gifts.

Its release is also timely, given the current strain in the country’s inter-racial relations. Isn’t it time to learn and respect the customs of others as well as our own?

Perhaps we do need another tome on Malaysiana after all - if only to remind us of how our differences make us unique.

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Dos & Don’ts in Malaysia

Thirunavukkarasu Jr. Karasu
iGroup Press Co. Ltd
172 pages
Non-Fiction
ISBN: 978-974-652-039-3

What Do You Mean, "We"?

I find this post a bit disturbing in the wake of the latest Chinese food scare. Sounds like some one had a bad day.

This "it's not them, it's us" mentality can't really be applied to some of the victims. Xinhua highlighted a mother from a family with an annual income of around 6,000 yuan (US$882) who could not afford foreign-made baby formula that's three to four times more expensive.

I buy milk products from big names: Nestlé, Magnolia, and Marigold because I trust them. San Lu is not some two-bit bootleg operation; the majority state-owned joint venture with New Zealand's Fonterra was exempted from inspections since December 2005 because it was believed to be a standard bearer. Yili, another affected company, was a partner of the recent Beijing Olympics. People trusted them - and were betrayed.

Some of the suppliers knew what they were doing - and couldn't care less. China Daily quoted one of two brothers who sold doctored milk to recoup losses after earlier shipments were rejected. "I've never asked and never thought about it. I only know it's bad for health."

We buy (often) crappy broadband because we don't have better. My buddy buys parts for his Fiat Coupé from Europe because they can't be found here. There are times when we want cheap (economy rice, anyone?), and times when we want the best, but can we get it all the time? What can we really do when big names associated with quality, through their fault or the fault of their partners, turn rogue?

On-line Speed Upgrade, By Maxis

I signed up for Maxis's Broadband. I didn't ask for one of the animal print versions, though.

In fact, I'm using it right now. it's slower than wi-fi, but much faster than dial-up. Registration took less than half an hour; half a day later, I'm online. I'm about six to seven floors up and connection's still good. So I did the ultimate test: Load Jolene Lai's blog. That should be the national benchmark for all local broadband providers.

But I had to return to the service centre after lunch because the dude who did my registration gave me the wrong SIM card, and my day wasn't really good already. And sometimes, the pages don't load. So building height is somewhat of an issue. Maxis also placed a cap of 3GB for amount of data transferred; any more and they'll pull the plug.

Don't think I'll be saying goodbye to wi-fi enabled cafés anytime soon.

Not The India Of Your Lonely Planet Dreams

Have I ever felt divided about a book as this? I had nothing against the writing. In most aspects it's a pretty good story: detailed (often, too detailed for my taste), visceral and well thought out. A good debut effort. But it's the things that the author made some of the characters do that really got to me. I think I'll leave the last verdict to readers.

And they left the "curry powder" reference in! Am I in trouble?

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Stark vision of India

first published in The Star, 22 August 2008


What's with the explosion of novels from Indian writers? Could it have something to do with Kiran Desai's Man Booker Prize? Or the buzz surrounding Monica Ali's Brick Lane?

Names I would normally associate with silks, embroidery and curry powder are showing up in bookstore shelves and best-seller lists. Now, waves of hopefuls from the subcontinent are on the horizon. And many of these Indian-sounding authors don't even live in India.

One of them happens to be Sujit Saraf, who made his debut with The Peacock Throne, an impressive novel that celebrates India's turbulent socio-political climate in the dying throes of the last millennium.

We are taken on a whirlwind tour of the period between 1984 and 1998, seen through the eyes of some colourful characters. The author weaves his settings and characters into actual events, going so far as to providing a map for key areas of the story and a glossary of terms. No effort is spared in his quest to make it "real".

The curtain rises from the calm of daily life in Chandni Chowk, the neighbourhood that much of the novel revolves around. Tea seller Gopal Pandey is minding his own business when all hell breaks loose after Indira Gandhi's assassination. He hides a Sikh trader from rioting Hindus, and is later sent by the trader on a rescue mission. Our humble tea seller will eventually be lifted from the ruins of his demolished tea stall and plunged into a storm in a political teacup, but that comes much later.

Meanwhile, the story continues through the vantage point of the other characters: Ibrahim, Gopal's Muslim buddy; the Sikh trader Kartar Singh; Gopal's ne'er-do-well son; old-fashioned shopkeeper Sohan Lal; the fawning, ambitious and scheming clerk Ramvilas; prostitute-turned-activist Gita Didi; corrupt cop Inderlal Jha; Western-educated female journalist Chitra Ghosh; and a thieving Bangladeshi scamp called Gauhar.

The overly romanticised India of yesteryears is pulverised and replaced by the stark, in-your-face grimness of Saraf's vision, which exposes the underbelly of life in contemporary India, complete with lurid tales of murder, politics, sex and other bodily functions. Readers are unceremoniously ushered into various venues where all the action takes place in such gritty, blood-curdling detail, the word "explicit" barely scratches the surface. Welcome to 21st century Indian drama.

This corner of Saraf's India has no heroes - or heroines. All the key players are disappointingly human. In the novel's troubled times their virtues are downplayed and we often see them in their selfish, arrogant, cynical and megalomaniacal worst. Even the goofy, affable Gopal has weaknesses and bad habits that make me want to throttle him.

The cast's purpose, it seems, is just to move the story along, like the cogs of some huge clockwork machinery. It's not about the people as much as it is about this slice of India's history, the one we always knew existed, but wouldn't dare bring up.

By keeping our emotions at arm's length, Saraf manages to enforce the psychological barrier that allows him to do nasty things with some cast members. There are a couple of bombs. Desecration of a national monument. Forced immolation. And of course, plenty of swearing, racist epithets, political double-speak and the usual "us versus them" rhetoric.

I am in two minds about The Peacock Throne. Like its namesake, it looks pretty, but behind it lies a tumultuous, bloody history. On one hand, it's well-written and the narrative flows naturally. The backdrops and scenes are rich in detail, though not necessarily pleasing.

The human drama it showcases, however, is like a dark, bottomless pit. There are a few parts that I found repulsive, particularly chapters featuring Gauhar. Delving too deeply into the pages will erode your faith in humanity - and maybe scupper your plans to backpack around India.

In the end, Saraf does the right thing by not making the characters too likeable. Given the heavy subject matter it's amazing how he managed to complete this book. How did he manage to keep himself going?

Someone once wrote that India will either capture your heart, or repel you. It certainly is true in the case of The Peacock Throne, a heady, eye-opening adventure for those who can stomach the repulsive bits. It's not a perfect novel, but really, how many adventurers expect things to go their way from start to finish?

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Peacock Throne

Sujit Saraf
Sceptre
754 pages
Fiction
ISBN: 978-0-340-89972-4